Falling Angels
by Tinna Minor
Summary: While running from Megatron, Starscream is captured and changed... into a 16 year old Human! Follow him as learns how to deal with human problems and changes his opinion about the human race, well, not really that last part... Rated T for safety
1. Prologue

_**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Transformers, but I don't. I do own everything that is not already claimed by other companies. Yeah, I don't know what I'm saying…**_

**Prologue: Changing**

A jet raced across the sky. Its engines were roaring at high velocity it went through the clouds whipping steam trails behind it. Two more air vehicles followed closely behind, not as fast but right on its trail. The pursing jet fired a barrage of missiles and the helicopter, which was also following, let loose shots from the large cannon on his front. The jet maneuvered itself, gracefully and almost beautifully away from the storm of destruction. From the front, a bomber appeared, shooting a couple more rounds that were dodged by a dive to the ground. More missiles were shot, they hit the ground as the harrier pulled sharply upwards and giant towers of ice rose from the smoke. Pulling upwards, lasers poured out like rain among the other three flyers. Unlike their opponent however, they were not quite fast enough to duck, and the fighter jet fell to the Earth.

The Bomber and Helicopter seemed to ignore their companion's decent. They kept trying to bring down the harrier, and soon, it had to fly close to the earth again. From the smoke in which the fighter jet had crashed, a tank emerged. It also entered the fight, with flamethrowers. Turning sharply to the left, the jet began to shift and change, then a humanoid figure appeared thrusters on its feet igniting so that it hovered slightly above the ground. The left 'arm' moved to point at the tank and it fired a shot that sent the tank flying. With a loud crash, the assault tank crashed into the bomber, and they both landed into a large cliff. Just like the harrier, the bomber and tank shifted into humanoid figures. The helicopter also shifted into a powerful being, cannon on his right arm, and twin blades in each hand. Like the jet, thrusters on its feet were keeping it in the air as it started to yell at the jet.

"Starscream! This is your last chance to surrender and come along quietly," the silver being shouted, even though he seemed to already know the answer.

"And if I surrender, then _what_? We both know that I, _Starscream_, need to be eliminated for your _precious_ prestige. Even if you do mange to _kill_ me now, which you have been _unsuccessful_ in the past, I can at least go down fighting, **Megatron!!!**" the purple harrier jet humanoid ranted back while charging.

'Megatron' started firing the cannon at Starscream multiple times but the harrier dodged each shot. The other two mechanoids started to also charge at the jet, but only succeeded for them to crash into their leader. Roaring in anger, Megatron saw the harrier move to escape again.

"**Coward!**"

He fired another shot, and this time it hit Starscream.

His eyes went dark, his thrusters turned off, and Starscream, Lord of the Sky, fell back to Earth.

-----

Megatron moved towards where the ex-second in command had fallen, Lugnut and Blitzwing right behind him. It wasn't hard to find him, for he left a huge crater. Looking at the Starscream's face, currently the mech offline, and appeared to be permanently gone to the well if not for the fact that his armor was still colored. Normally, the Decepticon leader would have liked to care less for the seeker at his feet, but at the moment, the Autobots were sending 'help', to the Earth-bound space bridge team. For a counter attack he needed more men. This meant recruiting his treacherous ex-second in command.

However, the twin-bladed helicopter knew that Starscream's would quickly backstab him again unless he could teach him a lesson. And Megatron knew just the way to 'punish' said seeker.

"Lugnut, Blitzwing; take Starscream to Soundwave, I believe that his machine is almost ready for a 'test subject'."

"As you vish, my liege." The cold side of Blitzwing stated before switching to his crazy side, "Oooo… I get to see Rumble and Frenzy again! HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"Of course my glorious master!" Lugnut spoke over his companion while reaching over to the offlined mech, "Your amazing intelligence and brilliant strategies know no flaws! All Hail Your GLORIOUS RETURN!!!" The big went on to rant for another minute before realizing that his 'glorious master' and Blitzwing had slipped away with Starscream. He transformed and quickly caught up.

Megatron activated his comlink, "_Soundwave, do you copy?_"

"_Affirmative, Megatron. Query: Is there a situation?_"

"_Negative, Soundwave, I just want an update on your project._"

"_Project Changing; complete. Soundwave: awaiting test subject_"

"_I happen to have you for you, be sure to be ready for our arrive. You'll be using it on Starscream._"

"_Soundwave: thanks Megatron for cooperation. Status: readying for arrival._"

Soundwave left the comlink and Megatron was allowed to ponder what was going to happen to Starscream after Soundwave's experiment. His men would probably drop the changed seeker off in an isolated area. Megatron didn't want him to die, however, he decided that it would probably be best to leave Starscream with the humans for now. After all, the ex-second in command was even lower than them. He would leave the seeker allow for about six months, then retake a hopefully eager to please Starscream back.

Megatron couldn't help but grin as looked back at the unconscious seeker, completely unaware of what was to befall him.

-----

Soundwave stood over the fallen seeker, readying his mechanism for the operation. It would be a simple process in the mind of humans, but to cybertronions, the process was much more difficult, taking mechanical systems and changing them into organic ones was much harder than it seemed, and he wasn't even sure if he would be able to change the seeker back.

Quietly hooking up the energy cables, the sound system looked over his shoulder to see a scowling Megatron watching his ever move. In the Decepticons, there was no place for a mistake in combat, even if Megatron's project with the space bridge had failed. After that event, the warlords temper seemed to have gotten shorter, as Soundwave easily got a beating should anything bad happen. Blitzwing had claimed that his current position had oncw been like that of Starscream's, the valued punching bag. It didn't help Soundwave feel better about the subject.

Laserbeak came and perched on his shoulder, watching and giving some comfort, whispering through the bond that the telepath had created.

"_What will he be like when the change is completed?_" the cyber bird asked curiously.

"_System: reacts to spark. Change: based on the hidden feelings and spark pulses. Identity: unknown until the end of purpose._"

"_What will we do with him when he changes into… _that_?_" Laserbeak didn't try to hide his disgust.

"_Answer: unknown. Decision: in the servos of Megatron._"

"_What I don't understand,_" Laserbeak hissed, "_Is why he wants this machine at all. So what if we can a new army? We'll still have to teach them from scratch, or go after stronger humans and risk rebellion._"

"_Soundwave: currently not in the position to speak against Megatron._"

"_So, what will you do?_"

Soundwave departed from the conversation to focus more on what the computers were showing and chanced a glance up at Megatron, which did not go unnoticed.

"Is there something wrong, Soundwave?" the Decepticon Leader glowered.

"Negative. Process of Starscream: ready for the change. Soundwave: awaiting orders."

"Begin process."

-----

I felt cold, that was the first thing that came to my processor when I came out of stasis. With my optics still shuttered, I felt my data banks play back the last images of Megatron shooting me, and it wasn't the best memory. I couldn't stop the shudders that raked my frame. I was still tired, my frame felt sluggish and squishy. As I heard voices that I couldn't identify approach, I decided to slip into a much needed recharge.

"Look, what's that in the snow?"

"Oh, my… it looks like a child, quickly, call an ambulance!"

"Alright, I'm already on it."

I decided to chance my optics a small unshutter. My vision was blurry, but I could make out a large dark green mech before me. There was a gasp.

"Angela! He's alive!"

A femme… and a rather big femme at that. How odd.

The femme turned back to me, "Don't worry, you're going to get help."

I tried to answer, but before I could, I was swallowed the warm black abyss.

**Authors Notes: **_I've had this idea stuck in my head for a while now, wrote this part last year. I need a beta reader, so if anyone is interested, email me. My email is in my profile. I would prefer a person who has spoke English all their life and at least in High School. You'll get an editor's notes, and hope to speak with you on notes of plot progression. Oh, and I easily get writer's block, so I'll need help in those times. The rest of my stories are on HIATUS, (that's what it's called right?) until this story is finished. I can already hear people asking about Screamer's fate, well, we'll see…!_

**Starscream: **don't help her in her plot to destroy my perfect mental image!

**Tinna Minor:** shut up! I'm from a free country! I'll do as I please!

**Starscream: **I don't like anything here, and why the pit is Soundwave like he is?

**Tinna Minor: **I will not answer your questions! However, readers, if _you_ have any questions, I'll be answering them right here. Please, for the love of Primus, keep reading this to the end, and review. The more reviews, the more people will see this story. Til' Next Time!


	2. Wake Up Fleshling!

**I dedicate this chapter to my new beta reader, Mrs. Miranda Optimus Prime, and tlcoopi7. Your review made me smile. I also want to thank all the rest of the people who favorited, reviewed, and alerted this story. The more you do so, the more people will see this fic. My goal is 50 reviews by chapter 10!**

**Author's Rant:** _They say that there are 24 hours in a day. Actually, that's a rounded 23 hours and 58 seconds. Starscream is smart, so he knows this. Me? I read this fact in the back of a manga. I think it was Kare Kano. Also, 70% of human face-to-face communication is body language. Only 14% is actually hearing the words. Anyway, welcome to chapter 1 of Falling Angels. Yeah, I'm sick today, I'm not going to school, so I thought I'd get some writing done. Oh, and if someone could help me in my French class, it'd be much appreciated. _

_Starscream tells time by the Cybertronian chronometer. This diagram will remain up until he adjusts to human times_

Second: astrosecond

Minute: joors

Hour: cycle

Day: orbital cycle

Month: sattilaic cycle

Year: Steller Cycle

_**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Transformers, but I don't. I do own everything that is not already claimed by other companies. Yeah, I don't know what I'm saying…**_

**Chapter 1: Wake up Fleshling!**

When I became aware again, the first thing that I noticed was the pain. I felt like I was melting in a pool of liquid slag, and it felt like it was in every one of my circuits, coursing and burning between all of my armor. I had been getting this feeling a lot lately. Usually it had to do with Megatron knocking me offline. Keeping my optics shuttered, I tried to run a self diagnostic, and waited for the familiar red text to show up. And I continued to wait. Where was that annoying ping in my cranial unit and the loading bar? Was my self repair unit malfunctioning? I tried it again. Still nothing. This meant only one thing; I would have to do it manually. It was so primitive, I felt like purging my fuel tanks.

I started with my lower left appendage, trying to concentrate on my booster and listening for the revving that it should have made, either that, of the choke of it being damaged. Nothing came. Panic gripped me. Was I in stasis still, or maybe stasis cuffs? Was I offline permanently? Was I even still alive? I un-shuttered my optics and gave a sigh of relief when I could see a grey ceiling above me. I was alive; in the very least I could see with my optics. The burning had subsided to a warm feeling, and I could here my spark pulse peacefully… wait… I didn't _have_ a spark, just an Allspark fragment keeping me alive… What was going on?

Pushing myself up was an effort, I felt heavier, _squishy_, and wet. There was a sharp pain in my cranial unit again and I shuttered my optics while placing a warm servo to my helm. It felt… odd. My helm was a wet a tiny bit, but I felt another sensation. For a minute, I tried to place a word. _Fuzzy_, my helm felt _fuzzy_. Un-shuttering one optic, I could see the 'fuzz' getting in my line of optical transmission. Growling a bit I reached with my servo to grab it, and then froze.

That wasn't my servo. It was a large _organic human_ _**hand**_! I brought farther from my optics to have a better look. I looked at my other servo to see that it as the same. I looked down at my berth to see blank sheets and the silhouette of a body, and tried to move my lower left appendage up towards me; part of that body moved.

Looking around wildly, I saw I was in a blank white room by myself. There were some monitors tracking my new _organic_ life source. To my left there was a window and to my right there was a door. In front of me, there was a mirror, and I got a look of my new body. Automatically, I felt like purging.

My organic protoform was a shade brown, but not black, nor white. Just in between. The fur on the top of my organic helm was purple… _purple _for _Primus sake!_ When I had first arrived to this primitive planet, I had done 'research' on humans and I knew enough to know that humans _did not have__** purple **__fur! _They would 'dye' it different colors, but it wasn't natural. The ones who had found me, (Megatron? Unlikely), had put a thin light blue armor on me for the sake of covering me up. Underneath that, I saw more armor covering up my pelvic area. It was white, like the room around me. I ran an organic servo through my helms fur. It wasn't all unpleasant, it actually felt good on my exterior nervous system. In those brief moments, I wished that I hadn't deleted most of my information on the _primitive _organics. Finally I looked into my own optics, expecting to see red like in my Decepticon days. It took me a second, but I had to squash a grimace of disappointment when I identified the color. It was a dark brown.

Growling, I laid back and closed my _eyes_, (not optics, they're called eyes). I tried to play the scenes I had before going offline. I waited before I remembered that I couldn't wait for a scene to load and that I would have to do it manually, _again_. 'Playing' the scenes of my confrontation with Megatron, I couldn't help but smile. I _was_ Starscream. Second-in-command of the Decepticon forces and the best _plus_ fastest flier that had ever been created in the _whole Primus forsaken_ **universe**! What had Megatron thinking when chasing me? My glee left when Megatron scored a 'cheap shot' on my booster. My memory core was blank for a second before I realized that there was another, much_ smaller_ memory: an organic, big and green, a bunch of freezing wet sensations, and a promise of healing. Looking around, I decided that this must be that promise of healing. It did _resemble_ a repair bay.

Cursing I turned to look for some sort of information. The monitors spoke of utter nonsense, obviously parts of the organic frame, so I looked behind the monitors to see a desk. Smiling I reached out to take some of the human documents lying _unsuspected_ out. Scanning through the information, my mouth turned into a straight thin line. They called me 'patient' in the report, and claimed that I had been found 'on a hiking tail outside of Detroit by citizens Angela Kimberly and Stacey Jones.' Turning to the next page, I found a damage report stating something like, strained left ankle, minor frost bite to left foot.

Putting down the paper, I tried to choose my next move. I was a _human_, (Pit take me, I absolutely _despised_ that word!), so I need to speak like a human. I needed a name, one that was normal by human standards, and a legend. I frowned at the thought of a legend. I could always say that I couldn't remember anything. It was an easy thing to do, and despite being a squishy, I doubted that my ability to lie had left me. I was, and still am, a Decepticon. If I could fool a bunch of blood thirsty Autobots into sparing me, how hard could it be to trick a couple of completely _idiotic_ humans into thinking I was pure?

"Hello?" I tested my voice. It sounded pretty much the same, only _younger _and _without_ the mechanical background that made me feel comfortable. Only problem now was how to greet the fleshlings.

"Megatron," I growled to myself, "someday, I swear, I'll _kill_ you for this!"

I heard a beep to my left and saw a time keeping device. One stick was pointing to a twelve, while the other smaller stick was pointing to a six.

"Why does the chronometer say twelve six?" I muttered a bit. "Don't the humans know that there are an estimated twenty-three cycles and fifty-eight astroseconds in one of there orbital cycles?"

A light came on outside of the room, and the sound of voices and pedal steps greeted me. Quickly, I put the papers back where they had been and prepared myself for the low life's reaction. A femme dressed in white entered the room, (why were these insects so into white?!) while looking at a document. Looking up our eyes met and she froze. I can estimate that we continued to stare at each other for at least ten astroseconds before see turned tail and left the room, covering her mouth with a servo. I opened and closed my optics a few times getting already for a blown out story when the human returned with a partner. This time it was a mech, _also_ wearing white, (I swear, if I'd keep seeing white, I would go mad!). They started to converse.

"See Doctor, he's awake, and looks to be in good health."

"My eyes work just fine, Amelia, thank you. Why don't you go and get something for our patient to eat?"

Nodding enthusiastically, 'Amelia' left the 'Doctor' and I alone. I decided to speak first.

"Where am I?" I croaked, trying to give a tired impression.

"Detroit Hospital," the answer was firm, but he did not go on. Obviously wanting me to do the talking.

"Oh," I whispered, giving him a puzzled look. I knew where Detroit was, but I didn't know what the slag a _hospital_ was. I decided to put the matter to rest for now. Instead, I decided to go with my original plan. "Who am I?"

The Doctors left optical ridge went up in a surprised manor. I had to keep my face straight, but it looked like I was convincing enough.

"You don't remember?"

I shook my head in answer to his question; part of me wondered what they did with humans with no memory core.

The Doctor seemed to be puzzling this out when that femme came into the room again with a tray covered in energy materials meant for the human digestive system. There was a smile on her face that almost made me purge, if I was not distracted by the gargling of my empty fuel tank.

The Doctor's face changed to a small smile as the femme began to set up the fueling platform.

"Forgive me, we have not introduced ourselves. You can call me Dr. Leroy, and she," he gestured to the human femme, "is your nurse, Amelia Hanick."

"Oh, um," I tried to like of something to say that wasn't a rude greeting. "Nice to meet you."

Amelia smiled, "Oh, no, the pleasure's all mine."

"Hmm…" I got ready for my next question, "what's a nurse?"

Both Dr. Leroy and Nurse Amelia starred at me in a shocked way. I wondered if I had said something wrong. After a nanocycle, Dr. Leroy came over and showed me one the boxes on my tray.

"What is this?"

I picked up the box and examined it before answering, "Lucky Charms? Why would I need lucky charms? There is no such thing as luck, only skill."

I looked to see the doctor frowning. For a brief second, I remembered Megatron looking at with that same expression. Usually this expression was followed by a quick slap to the face and his yelling at me to shut up. He took the box out of my hand and gave me a half of a sphere with a dent in it.

"Can you tell me what this is?"

I turned the object over in my hands a couple times before deciding to go with my first impression. "Half a sphere?"

He frowned again, "it's a bowl."

A bowl is what they called a half a sphere with a dent? Honestly, these creatures were so confusing. "Oh, what is it used for?"

"It's used to hold food." Food, there was a word that I actually knew. The human version of energon. I picked up the cylinder.

"What's this used for?"

That's a cup; it is used to hold liquids like water." Hydrogen Dioxide, the compound necessary to human life. Now things were starting to make sense.

I was about to ask him more questions when he turned to the 'nurse'. "Amelia, could you help the young man with his breakfast, I'm going to get something."

The femme Amelia nodded happily before he left. Turning to me, she asked, "So, what's your name?"

"I don't know." I turned back to the 'food' in front of me. "How do I do this?"

The nurse was ever pleased to teach me the basics of pouring cereal, and using a spoon. Lucky Charms, as it turned out, were the name of a brand of fuel that were _very_ sweet. After eating half the 'bowl' I felt like puking, but in the need to survive, I forced myself to finish the whole thing. Amelia claimed I was a bit sloppy, but she didn't have to feed me. _That_ image was scary to say the least. After the cereal, she took out an 'apple' and some 'bacon'. The apple was also sweet like the lucky charms, but not as bad, and I could eat the whole thing with no problems. The bacon was a different story. With the first bite I made the mistake of saying Primus, but luckily, she didn't think too much of it. In fact, she was scared that I was a 'vegetarian', but when I told her that I liked the stuff her reaction quickly changed to a sickening giddy nature. After fueling, the doctor came back into the room with another document.

"Tell me if one of these sounds familiar." He told me while handing me the list.

Looking at the document, I realized that it was a list of human designations. I didn't let it show on my face, but I was quiet pleased with the prospect of making an alias this fast. I automatically flipped to the 'S' section and began to go throught the list of names. Samuel… Sepal… Sean… Seth… I paused at the Seth. It was quick, easy to remember, and began with 'S'.

"That one," I pointed to the word and waited for the doctor to do something.

Dr. Leroy nodded, "Is that your name?"

I shrugged, "I don't know what my name is, but I like the sound of Seth."

Amelia smiled in the way of hers, "I like the word Seth, and it fits you." I wanted to scream at her to keep away, and barely restrained myself.

The doctor put on this serious look and I braced myself for bad news. "Well, Seth, we can't keep a perfectly healthy sixteen year old in the hospital for long, so don't get too settled."

I gave a small sigh as he broke the news, and it took me a minute to understand that he had given me my, 'age'. I couldn't stop myself from freezing. "Wait… how old am I?"

"You're sixteen," he said simply and that made me want to see him dead. "Do I have to fill you on age too?"

I stiffened, struck, but the doctor didn't seem to notice when I nodded. "We start as a newborn baby, which lasts for about three months. Second is a normal baby, four months to two years old. Toddlers are two years to five years old. Next is childhood, five years to ten years, the pre-teens ten to thirteen, teenage years, thirteen to eighteen which is what you are and then the adult years that have official citizenship."

A teenager; that was what I was. So close to power yet so far away, but this time I wasn't being blocked by a mech, but rather my own age. I was older than that! Last I had checked, I was a Pit taken five million steller cycles, and that was longer than any human life span, but I wasn't allowed to dwell on the topic for long, Dr. Leroy had started speaking again.

"Well, I'm going to do some paper work. Amelia, he's your responsibility, make sure he knows the basics."

"Excuse me doctor," Amelia suddenly spoke up, "but who is he going to be adopted by?"

"Why, Stacey Jones, of course."

I recognized that name from the damage report I had peaked at. She was one of the femmes that found me. Amelia didn't seem to happy about this, and even voiced her opinion.

"Sir, I don't think that she is the ideal guardian. She is much to free and open."

"She is also the vice principle of Lake Erie High School Eagles. Her sense of duty never clouds her judgment; she has the ability to listen to both sides of the story and look into things before jumping to conclusions. She is well liked on campus and has the caring spirit of a mother, she just never found a man to really love."

Hearing this made me have to quench a sigh of relief, an opened minded femme who could be helpful. But then again, anything had to be better than this over obsessive nurse. A 'school' sounded familiar as well. Perhaps it would be like the Decepticon Academy back on Cybertron. Probably not _as_ violent however. I nearly grinned at the thought, however my attention was quickly taken by the fact that the doctor had left and I was now _alone_ in the room with the femme. When she turned to me, I saw a strange smile on her face causing me to do a quick scan of the room with my new inferior 'eyes'. There was a security camera pointed right at me, so I had no don't if worse came to worse, she couldn't get away with it. So I beat her to speaking aloud.

"Could you help me stand, I need to learn how to walk."

Her mouth had already been open with 'words on the tip of her tongue' before I cut her thoughts. She seemed surprised at first by my request, but that _sickening_ smile returned and with an of course, I started my _disgusting fleshling_ lessons.

I wasn't very good at walking. I was used to having wings on my back to help me keep balance and my boosters giving me a few extra inches. So when I needed to _lean_ on Amelia for support, (which frightened me to the sliest degree being in a form that I couldn't defend myself in), it was expected. It took me twenty joors to be able to walk with her aid; however, I did need a stick to keep me up right for a while. Next step was very important, disposing of my 'body's' waste products. This, I had to learn to do on my own. I refused for that femme to be alone in the 'bathroom' (as she called it), with me. I rather wouldn't go into those details, but let's just say that I was quick to learn with disposed of which… the hard way… Next on the list was to learn as much about my frame as possible. Amelia was extremely cheerful to go over the basic human anatomy with me, (_too _cheerful for my liking). The human frame was kept alive mostly by the 'heart', which pumped 'blood' (like the spark pumped energon), through the human body. Humans needed to 'breathe' using 'lungs', unlike Cybertronians who just used to air vent for cooling down overheated circuitry. The 'brain' controlled everything in the human body, consciously and subconsciously, like a cranial unit and CPU. The digestive track was actually extreme long, and reproduction organs were a very… _disturbing_, conversation, (Amelia was to happy on giving me 'sex ed'). When the doctor finally returned, I found myself extremely grateful. I was getting quite uncomfortable.

"How are things going here?" he asked with a small smile. I could swear for a moment that he had done this on purpose.

"Everything's moving smoothly doctor," Amelia answered with an all too _innocent_ smile. I felt the undying need to run away. Me, Starscream, now a human and wanting to run away! I cursed silently to myself.

"Good, because Seth is about to leave," the doctor simply said.

Now, there were two reactions to the news. Amelia looked _very_ unhappy about the news; meanwhile, I was silently giving praise to Primus for letting me escape the torture.

"Miss Jones is on her way, I would like you to go down and meet her while I discuss some things with Seth here." I was really starting to hate the way that they referred to me, as if I wasn't even listening, as if I was a sparkling!

Amelia gave a small frown before exiting the room. Dr. Leroy turned his attention to me giving me that same sickening smile that I had hoped just belonged to the nurse.

"Seth," he started in a clear tone so that I couldn't miss anything, "here, I have your information, including birth certificate and everything else you will need until we identify who you really are. Usually, people with amnesia get flashbacks about their former life, so if you remember anything, my email is in here. Would you like to look at your papers?"

"That would helpful, thank you."

Looking over the new information, I saw that they had designated my birthday as December seventh. Because they were guessing how old I was, my 'year' was 2036. My 'blood type' was positive O, and it seemed that they had figured out my hair was 'naturally' purple. There was something called a social security number, but I can't really say the digits. When I finished scanning the documents, the doctor took them back, and Amelia reentered the room with another woman, and I quickly recognized her as one who had found me. With the report and Dr. Leroy's telling, I was able to safely assume that this was Stacey Jones.

The woman looked _nothing_ alike. She had bright yellow hair neatly done in one long braid on her back, and it would probably glow if she stood next to my dark purple hair. Her eyes were a blue that instantly reminded me of the Earthen 'sky'. On her face, there was a smile, but not at all like the smiles that the nurse had been giving me. This one was softer and had more feeling in it, as if she were trying to tell me hello. She was tall, too. Taller than Amelia, at least, for that was all I had to compare to at the moment. She moved with a fluid grace that reminded me of another femme, from so long ago.

"Hello," the woman greeted and extended her hand out in a greeting that I had seen humans and Autobots use before, but never myself. Decepticons gave trust to few, because we were always waiting to strike when the others back was turned. "My name is Stacey Jones, but feel free to call me Stacey." She was young, but not to young to be considered foolish. I could see in her eyes that she had a great deal of experience in life.

"Hello," I decided to reply after a second of evaluation and took her hand, trying to repeat the gesture seen completed. Why was I even _bothering_? Oh, that's _right_! I don't want to be _slagged_!

"I think my name is Seth."

"Well Seth, it's nice to meet you," she replied. Her voice was soft, caring, with the feeling of a femme creator. I quickly decided that she was a much better choice than Amelia.

"Stacey," Cr. Leroy suddenly, (it not _rudely_) interrupted us, "if you'll come here for a second, I need you to sign some documents. Then we should be all clear and he can go home with you. There are also some slight changes that I think you need to be aware of. Amelia, while I'm speaking with Miss Jones, could you help Seth get on his clothes. It's quite cold outside and he would freeze in the outfit he's wearing at the moment."

I took the guess that the activity was not only to keep me occupied so that he could give secret commands to Stacey, (honestly, I wasn't stupid, and Megatron had tried that one on me a thousand times. At least he had the decency and brains to get me, Starscream, out of the room. Were all fleshlings this stupid?), but also to keep Amelia from doing something disastrous in her free time. After all, that's what I would have done.

It took me a minute to realize that Stacey had brought a bag in with her filled with organic clothing. While looking at the outfit, I couldn't help but wonder what the material had gone through to be changed from its original organic substance, to the warm, soft, cloth in my hand. Amelia was smiling the whole time she told me how to strip, and then reattach the 'clothing', (it slightly reminded me of Cybertronian everyday armor platting), and where it went. 'Underwear' was the first thing she had told me about. Like the waste system, I rather wouldn't go into that. I can only say that Stacey and Dr. Leroy looked up from their conversation once with worried looks. Next, she taught me about 'pants'. Mine were a light blue and made of a kind of processed 'cotton' called 'denim' and Amelia called them jeans. They were easier to understand, and the 'pants' topic quickly closed. 'Socks' were also fast, and although I had trouble getting them on straight. But it was that, or let _her _touch me. The shirt was tricky… it took me a minute to figure out which were 'arm holes' and which was the 'head hole'. It seemed easy enough to remember before the shirt went over my helm, but I swear, as I puzzled this out, she was sitting there _laughing_! An organic, laughing at me, _Starscream_! While the shirt was remained wear it was, I allowed myself a scowl and a few curses in Cybertronian that meant nothing in human tongue. When the shirt finally came done correctly, I could see that not only the nurse, but the doctor as well had been laughing. Oh, how I missed my null rays in that moment, I would have liked to have blasted them all to the pit. Except Stacey, it looked like she had wanted to help and had not laughed. I felt that I could trust her to a _certain_ level. When it became clear that Amelia was not capable of truly assisting me, Stacey came over. She gave a pair of 'shoes' which were for my 'feet'. They slipped on to my feet quiet easily, and Stacey claimed that they were made to be like that and others were harder to put on. I decided that I'd deal with that when they came into view. Finally came the thickest cloth. It was obviously made of many layers, and a faded purple with black vines swirling over the front and a tube that Stacey called a 'pocket', like a subspace. It went on like the shirt, but its 'sleeves' were much longer, and it had a 'hood' to go over my helm. After "getting dressed" I was given another item, a piece of dead organic plant life called wood at had been 'carved' into an osprey, a fish eagle as Stacey explained.

"Well Seth," the doctor told me afterwards, "you check out, normally the farewell is 'hope to see you soon', however, here at the hospital, we say, 'hope to see you soon, but never here'. Goodbye."

With that, I was dismissed.

--

Only after we had exited the blank building, did I allow myself to truly think again. Freedom! It smelled so sweet! I felt the need to start my engines and stretch my wings after a day of confiscation in my room in the Nemesis. I then remembered that I couldn't do that anymore, and found myself cursing Megatron again.

"Is something wrong Seth?"

I turned suddenly remembering the human femme that had walked ahead of me in the time I had stopped to think. Quickly, I schooled my reflection back to neutral, and quickened my pace to catch up.

"Nothing," I murmured half-heartedly, putting on my best impression of an adolescent Cybertronian. "Just got lost in my thoughts, that's all."

"About what?"

Only a joor outside and already I was being annoyed by a fleshbag. The fleshbag that I would staying with until I could find a way to reverse this change.

"About the hospital," I chose to use as my cover up.

"Ah, I see. Did you like your stay?"

Why was this femme, no, _woman_, prying so much at my thoughts? Was she trying to start a conversation?

"I have nothing really to compare it to, unfortunately. The only memory I have besides waking up in the _blank_," I allowed some disgust, "room, is your finding me… where ever it is you found me."

Stacey gave me that soft smile, as if to say she was sorry for something, and I quickly realized that humans spoke more with body language for a reason. Her facial features spoke for much of what she didn't say out loud. Just that smiled revealed so much of her personality. My 'mind' automatically started up the process that it had been doing for millions of steller cycles; taking data, sorting it and trying to learn about how I could use this to my advantage.

"I see," was all she said out loud. "And what is your opinion of Amelia?"

That, I couldn't stop myself from filching at.

"Don't tell, but she _scares_ me! The doctor too, they both have that smile… it's all innocent and they try to make the world look like some _pretty_ place, and I'm willing to bet that it's not. It's people like _that_ which scare me."

By this time, we had arrived at her transport vehicle, a car. She opened up the door for me at went to the other side and did the same; then sat down and looked at me. I decided to take the safe approach and follow her example. Sitting down, I_ slammed_ the 'door' closed like Stacey had to hers, though I believe that I had closed mine a bit too hard for the noise it made caused my CPU jump slightly. Watching her, "buckle up", I fastened the safety strip across me and fit the metal 'buckle' into the slot. Stacey took out a 'key' and pushed it into another slot and turned, causing the car to rumble and vibrate, calling for my immediate reaction of throwing my arms up and pointing the null rays at the keys. It took another joor to realize Stacey starring and remembering, _again_, that I didn't _have_ my null rays anymore and a great embarrassment took over.

As the 'car' started moving along the road, at first there was a gentle silence. It gave me time to think about my predicament, trapped in the _disgusting_ human society, and a child as well! I almost wanted to say that my fate couldn't possibly get any worse, but I remembered the last time I said that and the results hadn't been exactly… _pretty_. Stacey, at least was giving me space to think. I guessed it was safe for the time.

"Do you like music?"

Her question took me off guard; I even gave a slight jump as she spoke out. Looking over I could see that she was still concentrated on the road.

"What is music?"

Stacey made a gesture to the subspace in front of me, and opening it, I was now witness to dozens of thin rectangular cases. The covers all had pictures, and they varied. Some said classical Bach and Mozart with pictures of wooden 'instruments' surrounded by black, others had pictures of people dressed in very strange, if not frightening ways, and scribbled with words not meant nothing, and then there was the occasional blank disc that simply had word or two written in blue ink. Finally, I selected a disc called Green Day.

"Ah, a rock fan?"

I turned to look at her and frowned. "To tell you the truth, I have no idea what this stuff is and what it does. I chose this 'Green Day' because it is the only one to make sense in my 'mind'." Also because on the back there is the word, 'gun'.

She took the disc from me, after a few astroseconds of silence, a soft voice came through the speakers and Stacey fell abce into silence as I let the sound of the 'music' carry me away.

_1, 21 Guns  
Lay down your arms,  
give up the fight_

_1, 21 Guns  
throw up your hearts,  
into the sky_

_You and I_

--

**Authors Notes:** _this chapter took me nearly a week to write. The song at the end is Green Day's 21 Guns. It's one of the best songs I've every heard. My friend told it won an award of some kind. I wouldn't know, I'm the last to ever know these things. I've got a sketchy taste in music, but I've decided that Starscream likes Green Day, and The Fray. Stacey likes country music. Her favorite is Taylor Swift, but I don't listen to country so I might a complete retard in that subject. I'm told that Taylor Swift does country, I don't know from experience. The same with Detroit. I know nothing about the place. I live in crazy California where the weather is hot and sunny one day, and freezing wet the next. At least you can predict Detroit's weather. So word of warning, I'm making this up as I go along. Also, I'll try and get in an update every month at most. But life's kinda hectic when you miss school for a week. If you think Starscream's a bit OOC, tell what I should do!  
_

_Originally, this chapter and chapter two were going to be one chapter. However, it's midnight, and I'm still recovering. Good Night!_

**Starscream:** WHAT?! You lazy aft, get up and finish writing!

**TinnaMinor: **zzzz… *sleeping through the yelling of Starscream and crying of seven month old brother next door*

**Starscream: **Fine, I'll do your line for you! All readers please review, reviews keep her writing. And because she's started, she needs to finish for once!


	3. The Human Dwelling

_**Dedications: To the star reviewer, (I plan on mentioning a reviewer here every time) Shadir, I'll try to keep you advice in mind, however, this chapter was already pretty far when I read your review, so I'll try to start next chapter. **_

**Authors Rant: **_Animated lasted only one year in our time, however, looking back, you can clearly see that two winters passed and the Autobots officially arrived in the summer. Thus, "50 steller cycles of searching" is now clearly 52. And I don't read many magazines, just a juvenile writing magazine called _Cricket_ and an information magazine called _Muse_. So I don't know a good magazine to write about. And considering the last reviews, I've changed my review goal to thirty reviews by chapter ten, I do plan on writing that long, I just need to keep being inspired enough. Sorry, this chapter isn't edited yet!  
_

_Starscream tells time by the Cybertronian chronometer. This diagram will remain up until he adjusts to human times_

Second: astrosecond

Minute: joors

Hour: cycle

Day: orbital cycle

Month: satellitic cycle

Year: Steller Cycle

83 years: Vorn

_**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Transformers, but I don't. I do own everything that is not already claimed by other companies. Yeah, I don't know what I'm saying… **_

**Chapter 2: The Organic Shelter**

The ride 'home' had been fairly silent, with the sound of the green day disc softly humming vibrations that entered my audio receptors in a pleasant way. The streets were bright form the system's star high above the car, beating wave after wave of hot solar energy to the planet. Sidewalks were coated with solid white blocks of hydrogen dioxide while the fleshlings of the planet buzzed about like the organic insect bee. Stopping every now and then because of 'traffic lights', I could see the humans standing around or walking completely minding their own business. The world seemed to pass them by and they didn't seem to care. Every creature was different, and I could tell by their wear how they were doing in society. Some people wore many layers of thin clothes to cover themselves, carrying around large wagons filled with an assortment of items, they obviously weren't doing well. Others were well groomed, carrying around large bags and still others were chatting on external comlinks. I thought I saw a couple people my 'age' together pushing and yelling at others. They seemed to be point out and laugh at the society shunned people. The need to get out of the safety of the vehicle was maddening. Decepticons may be evil, lying, murdering scum, but one thing we don't do is laugh at a person failing in society. Most of the Decepticons had come from that social class, although I wasn't one of them. If you could live and survive the oppression faced by the Autobot Council while being the lowest of the low, Decepticon society considered that one of the greatest strengths and definitely did not laugh, in fact, they helped. This world reminded of Cybertron before the war, and I remembered my previous life, though that's a different story.

We came in front of rows of dwellings, and soon the car stopped in front of one, a light green with seats on a hanger overlooking with another story. It wasn't big but it wasn't small, and for a moment I wondered what a 'woman' could do with so much space. There was an organic 'tree' in the front with a seat connected to the 'tree' for some odd reason. I turned to look at her.

"Oh, that swing's been here since I was a little kid," Stacey explained with that soft smile of hers. "Can you swing?"

Swing… that word entered a memory of my banks about a motion picture that I had seen when I had first arrived on this planet, about a man that lived in the jungle with his ape ancestors, he would 'swing' on the vines through the jungle. Really, it meant nothing, had I had tried to delete the file except for this one part that wouldn't let me, the elephants arguing over really simple things. A political debate, and I, though I knew they were unavoidable, _despised_ debates! However, if I wanted to be leader of the Decepticons, I would need to let go of my hate of debates, though I could still hate them now.

I followed Stacey out of the car and into the dwelling. She took out a piece of metal and placed into a slot, (not an electronic card key? I thought humans treasured their security more than that), and the door opened into a room. At first I looked at the door, it was so _primitive_! Then I looked inside the room and was relieved not living quarters, but more like a rec room. There were many electrical devices, all of them primitive, but substantial, and despite all the space taken up by furniture, it was rather empty. This was my thought for merely ten astroseconds, before I heard the patter of feet and another organic creature running towards me. Before I could get a good look at it, I found myself tackled and pinned to the floor… by a lower life form that wasn't even capable of a higher thought process! Opening my 'eyes', I saw a pair of almond gold optical sensors meeting my own. We just looked at each other for a joor, then its mouth opened to reveal a long, _wet_, _**drooling**_, _**TONGE! **_That was the _last _straw!

"Off me…" I growled. It just cocked its head and began to _lick_ my face. "Off me **now**! Filthy lower life form! I demand you release me this instant, fur covered organism!" I began to struggle, but the creature seemed too happy to lay there on top of me.

"Coco, come here, girl."

The dogs head seemed to shoot up and it was quickly followed by the rest of its body towards its master. Stacey seemed to be happy enough, quickly petting it affectionately, and I was given time to get up and recover. I got a good look at the femme 'dog'. It was completely covered in fur, and it's color was a deep, warm, mud brown. Rolling on 'her' back, I saw that automatically Stacey took this as the queue to start rubbing 'her' stomach. The dog looked up at me and began to pant. I narrowed my eyes in disgust.

"Stacey looked up from her activity with an apologetic smile, "Sorry about her, I forgot to warn you that I have a dog, and this is Coco she's a lab. Very friendly with people, you'll warm up to her, I'm sure."

I cast weary optics on the dog before going back to my previous task of searching the shelter for anything that might be of use to me. Communication devices, monitors, chairs, couches, pillows, rugs, shelves, it was a lot for just one person, maybe to much, in my opinion. How often did she have to invite others for the good of her social life? I gave a small smirk as I remembered the 52 steller cycles of searching for the Allspark alone on the Decepticon command ship, _Nemesis_. There were a couple of hallways needing away to different rooms and quarters, although I couldn't begin to fathom to know where to start.

By now, Stacey had left the dog's stomach and had started walking towards me. We simply looked at each other for a moment, and then she smiled again. "Want a tour?"

After another moment of silence, I nodded to the offer. First she introduced me to the rec rooms inhabitants. There was the monitor, which she called a TV, four chairs all made of plastic and all different solid colors, a sofa that was a simple beige (also quite nice to sit on), a polished wooden floor, three rugs not including the shoe mat by the door, and very large windows which she explained were good for the environment. Next we entered the 'kitchen', were the human energon, 'food', was kept and processed into more _complicated_ energy diets. There was a 'refrigerator' for keeping materials from going bad by keeping them cold, an 'oven' to get them hot, a 'pantry' to keep 'food' as simply another storage center, and in the room next door, was a large table with six seats. According to Stacey, that table was only used with guests, and the table we would be eating at regularly would be the smaller two person table she had put in the 'kitchen'. Through the hallways, we moved along and I recognized three 'bathrooms' like those at the 'hospital', only these were cleaner, and had more gadgets. Stacey was very excited at telling all about the 'shower' and 'bath' functions, so I got the idea that they were used to clean to organic body. I couldn't believe that I had heard anyone else ever speak about of subject before with so mush gusto… no, wait, I take that back, Lugnut's 'Glorious Leader Rant' put her to shame.

When we entered an empty room that was completely blank with the same wooden walls of the rec room, I thought Stacey had pushed into the wrong room. However, when she told me to wait and returned a minute later with a servo, (no, 'hand' full), of primitive news articles most likely selling products for human society. Stacey seemed very excited as she exclaimed-

"We're going to design your room scratch!"

I decided to place the word 'room' under quarters, and when she said design from scratch, I could only stare in human stupor. It seemed that she thought it was funny, because she automatically began laughing, although I guess she could be laughing at her own joke.

"Would you care to enlighten me on this subject?" I decided was the best response to go with. Stacey happily showed me the articles.

"These," she began, "are magazines. Magazines can be about anything; this one is about home care and furniture. I bought it yesterday so I could work on my guest room which you'll be sleeping in until we get the furniture in this room. Today's Saturday, so we have time to go through this and order before lunch."

Stacey sat down on the floor and motioned for me to sit by her so I could look at the pieces of gazed organic wood sheets without having to block her view. The dog lay beside her also and looked like it was going to go to sleep. She filled through the sheets until she came and settled on a section called, "Bedroom".

"Alright," she smiled, "let's start simple; what color do you want your room to be painted?"

Despite it all, I had never gotten to choose what my quarters looked like. All it had ever had was a recharge berth and a private monitor system used for writing reports. Now here I was in human society, choosing what I could do with it… I felt a bit empowered even though I shouldn't have.

There were many colors to choose from; some of them appealing while others just hurt my 'eyes'. The titles were also interesting, and I sometimes had to ask what some words meant, like "cherry red", and "cinnamon roles". Colors that I tried to avoid were white, gray, orange, pink, and blue. The only orange that I could like was "amber", and that's because it reminded me of my cockpit. Then I realized something that scared me.

I couldn't fly anymore.

I, Starscream, the Lord of the Sky, General of the Seekers, Air Commander of the Decepticon Fleet, Second-in-Command of the Decepticon Forces (I didn't like that one as much), and Future Supreme Leader of the Decepticons, had been stripped of the very thing that made me powerful, feared, and respected… well, that last not as much, but still. I was the greatest and fasted flyer in all of Cybertronian history, and I had now been reduced to a **pathetic, worthless, and organic squishy! **That thought tore at my insides and I once again swore to kill Megatron in the most sufferable way possible, and then shoot his spark down to the pit for the rest of eternity.

In the end, I chose the color "magenta" like my own color scheme. Stacey laughed and said something about purple, especially magenta, representing royalty. Well, I _was_ the future leader of Decepticons; all I had to do was find a way out of this mess, then kill Megatron. It was so _simple_ yet so increasingly _difficult_, that it drove me insane.

Next on the list were rugs. There wasn't a very big selection; I ended up choosing this small one that came in the color "cranberry". She had me choose a desk for "a computer" and "to work on homework", not that I knew what the second one meant, but I could guess that a 'computer' was a monitor. The desk I chose wasn't the biggest nor was it the smallest. It had four drawers, two small storage units, and plenty of surface area so I could pile on stuff like my old monitor. Stacey claimed that she was going to choose me a 'bookshelf' and then pointed to the berths. Only they were called 'beds' and this was the largest section. I had to choose between fifteen different designs and thirty-two different 'bed sheets' styles. All in all, very time consuming. Then there was the fact of where everything would go. Stacey actually took out a measuring implement that she called a 'tape measure' and had me get _on_ the floor to make sure everything would fit! And yes, it did. The whole time, that 'dog' was laying there watching us with an amused expression. Taking out another sheet, Stacey seemed to scratch the sheet with a small utensil, before exclaiming, "oh, look at the time! We're missed lunch! Well, I guess time flies when you're absorbed."

For 'lunch' as it was called, we had "grilled cheese". Large particles of starch split into thick slices, and then 'cheese', a dairy product that came from 'cows', was in the middle. Not unpleasant, just a completely different experience from 'breakfast'. I was also surprised that humans refilled their energy three times a 'day', (I think she meant megacycle). Cybertronians should only reenergize once a megacycle and they can go for three megacycles with refueling. After lunch, Stacey claimed that she had some work to do, then planned on walking the dog. She said I could watch some 'TV' (a different kind of monitor?), or I could "hang out" in the "backyard" with Coco. Easy to say, I chose the primitive entertain monitor: TV, a.k.a., television. The first place I went and settled on was the 'History Channel'. I don't know how long it was that I sat there, at least a cycle I suppose, but long enough for Stacey to come down the steps that went up to the second level and claimed to "I'm going to walk with Coco, I'll be back in a hour."

That was when I made my move.

The moment that I door closed and Stacey was out of sight, I jumped up and went to the monitor that she had been working on. It was still on, and I had had enough experience to know that 'Internet Explorer' was the program that went the "World Wide Web", the official data base. I began a large search for information that most humans took for granted, looking time systems, politics, family units, organics of power, Autobots, and Decepticons. I also took this time to look up some phrases that I had learned in the short time of being a fleshling. Erie High School was indeed like the academy, only they didn't focus on fighting, just general information that most squishes should know. According to the information, Stacey was the second-in-command of the school called a vice principle; it was actually quite funny that we were both second-in-commands, although I was of a greater _much_ more powerful fleet. The latest on the Autobots wasn't much, just more victories over Megatron, (the _great_ and _mighty Megatron_ losing once _again_ to an Autobot _space bridge repair crew_, simply hilarious! That ninja wasn't that bad however…). Of course the humans knew nothing of the Decepticon activities in public, so I had to hack into the police data base to learn more. While hacking, I felt a bit better about my current position, although I was only looking. After hacking, (it was very easy, but not too easy with limited resources), I could see that Lugnut and Blitzwing were stealing more supplies, and based off the list that was provided, I could tell that Megatron was building something again, probably a ship to get him off this Primus-forsaken-planet. Pits take him before then; I hoped that the Autobots would foil him if I couldn't get my body back before then.

I learned how long a human 'hour' was and five 'minutes' before she got home. I had to delete all evidence of my being there, and then go turn that TV back on, hop on the couch, and make it look like I had been watching. If there was one thing I hated about being human, it was that I couldn't download information into my CPU and review it during breaks. Of course, I miss being able to scare fleshies into doing my will even more. Of course, for the moment I had to focus on the program incase she inquired what it was about. But when she walked into the dwelling, she didn't seem to expect anything. All she did was take the dog off her leash, and let her spring on top of me.

'Coco' seemed very happy to see me, after all, I had a soaking 'shirt' to prove it, and when Stacey came to sit on the couch also, the dog finally settled between us. We simply watched TV for a while in an awkward silence before Stacey tried conversation.

"Tomorrow, I'll take you shopping; you can't where that out fit every single day."

I felt one of my 'eye ridges' rising up. "Why not? I see no problem with wearing the same…" the word escaped me for a second, "_clothes_, everyday."

"Well," she began, "I don't like doing laundry everyday, and I try to get it done at most once a week. And those clothes will smell very bad if you don't wash them. Plus, we need to get some supplies, like toothpaste, toothbrush, pajamas, underwear, books, music, lots of clothes, maybe a few video games, _all_ that furniture, and after shopping we need to get you enrolled in Lake Erie High School, so we have a full schedule tomorrow."

"High School? What is a… 'High school'?"

She starred at me for a second, and the dog seemed to repeat her master, just looking at me with that strange silent look that made me nervous about my well being. I had already looked up what a high school was, but I decided to just play dumb, I knew it could get a) a beating, b) a laughing stock, or c) the pity card and power.

She went with both b and c. Coco seemed to wag her 'tail' faster than before.

After a small fit of laughing she finally managed to look at me again.

"I fail to see the humor," I murmured while looking at her cautiously.

"School," she breathed out between giggles that were more like chuckles, "is where you go to learn. Oh, dear lord, you sound like an old man…" Technically speaking I was in human 'years'. However in Cybertronian vorns, I was twenty-one age wise, though it equaled millions of steller cycles. I couldn't understand why I had bee put in this age.

"I see."

The conversation seemed to die for another couple joors before Stacey finally popped out, "hungry?"

At that moment, I felt a strange ache in my middle stomach, and it reminded silently of what I had felt before in the 'hospital'. "Maybe…"

"I'll make something then."

Getting up, Stacey walked over to the area designated 'kitchen' Coco quickly following her out. I began to hear metal clanking and feel a sensation fill up the component on my face. It took me to realize that I was smelling the food she was making and tool minutes to draw in on the new sense. Cybertronians couldn't smell, only seekers had a sensation even close to it. We could 'taste' the air on our nosecones for gas make up and temperature in the activity of flying quickly and effectively. Because of this, the nosecone was sensitive, and usually targeted by Megatron during _punishment_ sessions.

Shaking my head a little to rid myself of the awful memories, I tried to concentrate on the program, a channel called "Animal Planet" about the other organisms besides humans most of the time including this program. It was called "Meerkat Manor" all about these fuzzy small organisms that lived in a dry area and fought for there survival. Personally I couldn't understand why humans would want to be interested in a specimen so much more primitive then themselves. None the less, I continued to watch the 'Whiskers' family until a strong sweet voice rang out from that table.

"Dinner!"

I found the off switch for the 'TV' and walked over toward the door. In no more than two steps, Coco was there by my side leading me to the table. I gave a small snarl towards the dog before entering the room and sitting at the seat that wasn't taken. Stacey looked up and smiled again.

"How much steak do ya want?"

I didn't know what steak was, but it didn't 'smell' unpleasant, in fact quite the opposite. I could feel the liquid start to build up in a mouth component. "Not too much, I don't know my limits yet."

Looking around I found another utensil similar to the one I used in the in the hospital to eat the 'cereal' only this one had four points and no small basin to scoop food into. Picking it up, I looked to Stacey for help. Giving me that understanding smile, she simply said, "watch me" and began to eat.

She turned the utensil in her hand so that the back of it faced me, and seemed to stab the food, only it didn't go far in, and she quickly turned the utensil so that it was now side ways and supporting the food from falling off. Then she brought it to her open mouth and seemed to swallow both the head of the utensil and the food, then the head slipped out of her mouth and her jaw began to go up and down. What was she doing… oh, that was it, chewing.

"See," she said looking towards me, "Now you try."

I tried my best to get the 'steak' on my 'fork', as she called it, but the slagging thing just kept falling off! Growling, I stabbed the food much harder and tried twist it up like I had seen her do. This time it stayed on. I gave a small smile before moving it to my mouth.

The moment I took a chunk into my mouth and started chewing so as not to choke, I realized that wasn't like the food I had eaten in the hospital. That stuff was hard and dry though flavorful, but this was extremely moist. Every time my jaw came down on it, moisture seemed to escape and the food seemed to fall apart. I swallowed a little bit at a time so as not the choke.

By this time I realized that I had an audience. Stacey was looking at me with an amused expression and Coco was looking at my food longingly, and I wasn't going to give it up. So I took another bite. And another.

We ate in silence until Stacey spoke up again.

"Your going to need to change into pajama's so I can wash that outfit for tomorrow."

I looked up from my food to her. I could hear the dog's tail hitting the floor furiously and waited for her to elaborate.

"I think I have an oversized tee-shirt somewhere, you can wear that tonight when you go to sleep in the guest room. Plus, you need to take a shower."

Shower… what was that? I decided to let it slide and focus on the food in front of me. I could hear Stacey give a small whisper to herself before she started eating also. "Hmm… I wonder how you'll work with her…"

--

The rest of the refueling session, 'dinner', was uneventful, despite that dog _slobbering all over_ _my pants_! Wasn't my shirt enough?! Stacey had then claimed it was "eight o'clock" and led to the bathroom. The moment we reached it, I understood that this visit wouldn't be like the tour. I had already used the 'toilet' while she had been walking Coco, (the dog had fallen asleep), but now my attention was turned to another mechanism, one with a blurry, see-through door, compartments and tubes of human supplies, and two nozzles with two knobs, one up high and the other lower, the knobs being on either side. I room wasn't white, but it still was a pale blue, and the mechanisms insides were pale green tiles.

"Now," Stacey expressed silently dramatically, "I hope you can tell me how to do this, a shower."

No, I didn't, but I wasn't sure what to say. Finally I settled on, "no."

Sighing as she shook her head slightly, I felt anger rise, "Well, excuse me for not remembering anything."

"oh, no," Stacey quickly stated, "I simply feel you might be uncomfortable with me helping you out."

Truth be told, I probably would have. Unfortunately, I needed help, and although trust wasn't something I gave out to anyone, I felt that I would just have to trust her on this one.

"So how do I do this?" I asked after a brief period of silence.

"Yes," she was quick to snap back into action. "First take off your jacket. Then remove your shirt."

I felt a bit angry at being ordered around by an organic, but did as I was told. Soon you could see my bare 'skin' and though it was pale, I could see little fur. It took me a few astroseconds to contemplate that the room was rather cold; not extremely cold like the vastness of space, but all the same cool to my bare flesh… _my bare flesh…_ I want to sulk for a moment.

Stacey seemed to stare at my back for a moment. I knew what this was about. But neither of us said anything.

The sound of liquid quickly spluttering and the evening out to a steady pace caught my attention. I peaked at what Stacey was doing and quickly realized what a 'shower' was; a hygiene station for humans.

A hygiene station for a Cybertronian was quite different. Rather than use up the coollet that was used to wash, we just put the liquid in a basin with a fabric and whipped ourselves down. We didn't rust, nor did we smell. The process of a hygiene station was simply to remove the grit and dirt from ones body and to run a quick self diagnostic. Hygiene for seekers was more important, because grit and dried oil could cause problems in flight. But still, we did strip down to our bare protoform at some point…

"Come here and tell me when the water feels good."

My musing interrupted once more, I moved forward and put my hand under the strong spray of water. At first, it seemed cold, but gradually, as Stacey turned the knob that was farther away from her, it steadily got warmer. When the temperature felt nice, I told her, "That's good."

"Got it," and with that, she took out a marker and wrote something on the wall. Pointing to it, she explained, "Whenever you take a shower, turn the knob to this point. Now though, you have to finish getting undressed."

It took me five astroseconds to process this and when I did, I felt hot liquid rushing to my face. I tried to say something, but the only thing that came out of my mouth was, "oh…" And thus I began to strip my jeans, putting them into a pile with my shirts, but I kept the cloth that covered up my pelvic area on, unsure of what I was supposed to do in human society. Stacey seemed to frown before saying, "sorry, but that has to go as well." With that, I pushed them off. I could see my human reproduction organs, but turned my attention to the hygiene station fairly curtain of what I was to do now. Quickly, I jumped into the stream of water and felt it beat upon my new flesh in a pleasant manor. I felt as though the water was ridding me of things other than odor, grim, and dirt.

"For now," I heard Stacey state, "just get wet, I'll be back in a minute with something for you to wear afterwards." And with that, she closed the door. I could only see the outline of her body as she left the room and realized I could give facial expressions without getting caught. Relaxed and slowing focusing, I began to think of how long I had gotten into this mess. Last I could remember in Cybertronian form, Detroit was nearing the end of 'summer'. Now, all this crystallized water called 'snow' was about, and the season and changed to the end of 'autumn'. The date was apparently December ninth, of the year 2052. That could mean that changing me into a bag of flesh had taken a great deal of time, but why had Megatron gone through all that effort? It would've been so much simpler to deactivate me by removing my Allspark shard, only that wouldn't truly kill me, for my spark had _become_ the Allspark shard. So in a way, I _was_ the Allspark.

Stacey reentered the room carrying something. Putting it down, I prepared to leave the comforting hot water when her voice rang out, "alright, are you ready to learn about soap and shampoo?"

I could tell that it was going to be a long hygiene lesson.

--

I collapsed on the bed and called out "good night", in return to the Stacey's choice of farewell words, "Goodnight, Seth Jones."

Though I was glad for the hygiene lesson, it had lasted an earth hour and now, I was in desperate need of recharge. When Stacey started talking about 'hair products'; I now knew the hard way that she could go on forever.

Tomorrow, according to the meal, was going to be just as filled. Shopping, as Stacey spoke of it with great enthusiasm, we were going to get clothing, equipment, and sign me up for some sort of "Lake Erie High School". While we would be gone, (the dog was coming with us), my room would be painted, and furnished. So I began to climb onto the bed the and pulled the covers over myself. Finally the long megacycle seemed to catch up with me and I couldn't help but smile as a stray thought crossed my mind.

First Day of living the sticking, disgusting, primitive, and idiotic human life, complete.

--

**Author's Notes: **This chapter was mostly filler, I was planning on combining with chapter one, but then I realized how long this would be on its own and decided to separate them. Anyway, this is mostly bonding between Stacey and Starscream; I want to design Starscream's room using my cousin's PC game, _Sims_, but my parents are against that kind of stuff for reason of, "It will distract you for your homework". As for Starscream's titles, I had fun with that part, although the air commander title technically comes from G1. Also, colors represent things, and purple just happens to represent royalty. Another thing is I didn't plan on Stacey having a dog; I made that up out of nowhere when I decided she was going to have a two story house. The dog won't play a very major part in the whole story… wait, I take it back, I might be fit it in during some events. I had trouble choosing between the names 'Coco' and 'Fudge', but in the end Coco won because of cute points. She's a chocolate Labrador retriever. Finally, I'm not good at Megatron's evil plans; I'll take suggestions for the new evil plot of Megatron.

I'm wondering how many Starscream fans will be swooning over this chapter. Coollet is a pretty commonly used term for writers when the write about washing transformers, so I'm using it plus giving copyright to its founder. And Stacey is a mature adult, she doesn't have dirty thoughts, she's just trying to be helpful.

Yeah, like last time, it's late. I stayed up until 12:30 yesterday and it was a school night so I had to get up at 6:00. Now, it's 11:45, and I'm going to bed now.

**Starscream: **What?! Again?! Get up you lazy glitch!

**TinnaMinor: **Zzzz… *Sleeping in blissful unawareness*

**Starscream: **You really owe me those cookies now… Everyone, this story is slowing down because of missing school and make-up work. She needs to get inspiration, anything from a review to fan art will do; just do something!

Please Read, Review, and Read again!


	4. The Mall and Then Some

**Dedications: The featured reviewer Trapped in Reality. Your review really gave me the strength to get back to writing this story. Another to Marion_Light(), for your review. I would also like to thank everyone else reading and reviewing. Another thank you goes out to my friend Jocelyn, who is willing to listen to me rant about my writing even though she isn't a Transformers fan plus Frank for helping me with the mall part. Thank You!**

**Authors Rant:** _I was going to try and have the Christmas part written in time for the holidays, but at the rate school is eating up my internet life, and my real life, I won't be getting there anytime soon. Honestly, you're sick for one week and all the makeup work lasts even a month and a half later. Another thing I have gotten absorbed in is the computer game _Spore®. _My brother Paul got it for his tenth birthday recently and now the all the kids,(except 8 month old Matthew) are completely sucked in. There isn't as much dialogue in this chapter because I was in a rush at the end. I was going to let this fic rest for a couple months, until Trapped in Reality and Marion_Light() Reviewed. Life has returned, and I write with new gusto! Wish me luck, and happy holidays! _

Note to: Trapped in Reality  
I didn't know that I made his birthday on the Pearl Harbor date, that's a pure, but nice, coincidence. About Stacey, she is open minded, but in the stupid way. She can be compared to one of those friends that always will say yes. She inherited the house from her Grandmother, (along with a great deal of money) who had passed away with breast cancer and because she had all this space, decided to get a nice garden, some chickens, and of course, Coco. I think I addressed all of it…

_Starscream tells time by the Cybertronian chronometer. This diagram will remain up until he adjusts to human times. I've gotten more exact. _

.4 seconds: astrosecond

50 seconds: joors

1 ½ Hour: cycle

12 hours, (sunrise to sunset): megacycle

Day, (Sun Rising, to the next sunrise): orbital cycle

Month, (full moon to full moon): satellitic cycle

Year, (complete sun rotation): Steller Cycle

83 years: Vorn

_**Disclaimer: I wish I owned Transformers, but I don't. I do own everything that is not already claimed by other companies. Yeah, I don't know what I'm saying… **_

**Chapter 3: The Mall… and then Some**

My frame was tense when I started to move, trying to rouse myself out of recharge. There was a voice calling out, it was very soft and comforting, but it wasn't me it was calling, some youngling named Seth. But still if someone else was being called, it would only be a matter of time before my comlink would blare to life and Megatron would start yelling at me for being late when, _in fact_, it was _early_. Something seemed to touch my arm and push it a bit, and that voice still whispered, "Seth, come on, don't you want breakfast before we go out today?"

Seth… breakfast… today… those weren't Cybertronian words… they were _human_…!

I shot up out of 'bed', instantly regretting it. A very large pain entered my 'head' and nothing seemed to compute for the next joor, and when it finally did, the first thing I recognized was the worried tone of my _caretaker_ Stacey calling out.

"Seth?! Are you alright?!"

Before I could reply I groaned and out a servo, no, 'hand' to my helm to steady myself, "I think so, you just _startled_ me, that's all." My 'heart' was pumping extremely fast at the moment, probably due to shock. I tried taking deep breaths through my vents, no, 'lungs' as that usually helped with a spark attack.

"Thank goodness," she breathed relived, "for a minute there I was afraid that you had gotten whiplash. Are you sure you're all right?"

Now she was getting _annoying_.

"Really," I remarked, "I'm fine, now, what was that about... 'Breakfast'?"

I could thank the modern _short_ attention span of humans. She was happy to go to that subject right away. "Yes, well, what would you like? You probably don't want cereal; would you like to try eggs?"

'Eggs'? Wasn't that the way most organics reproduced? They _ate_ their unborn sparks, no, _souls_!?

"W-What do you mean by eggs?" I tried to cover up my nerves but my body wasn't as cooperative today. Slag! Right when I really need to _act_, it fails me!

"Chicken eggs of course, my chicken Lucy laid three this morning and I have a couple from the store. If it makes you feel better I'll eat the fresh ones and you can have the store bought ones."

Oh, it was a _different_ species 'eggs'. I felt my body relax a bit but I still felt the need to ask the burning question, "So you don't eat your offspring…"

Stacey seemed startled by my question, "what do you mean? Of course we don't. I'm not a cannibal, and I don't know any cannibals… we have abortion but that's pretty much it."

Hearing this I relaxed considerably with part of my mind _nagging_ at what an 'abortion' was but at the moment I decided to ignore it.

"Well," she laughed after a moment of silence, "go on, and get dressed. I'll have breakfast ready in ten."

I was going to ask what she meant by ten however she had already disappeared. Growling in frustration, I began to put on the 'outfit' given to me in the hospital just the other megacycle. It was much harder than last time, after all, _that nurse_ wasn't assisting me, but I was capable of getting the lower half of my body's garments on. It was the _top_ that was troubling, I tried to remember the order I had been taught, and it did work, just took at least five joors.

After a great deal of cursing at the 'cotton fabric' that covered me, I finally stepped out of the quarters and could 'smell' something coming from the place where the 'kitchen' was located. This however made so I couldn't sense the _assassin_ that stacked behind me.

Something hit me in the back, (wait, I thought _I _was the backstabber!) and I felt myself hit the ground _hard_. The fact that the something was now settled on my back wasn't any better. After recovering from my little daze, I was able to identify the attacker.

'Starscream, my dear, how could you be so stupid to forget all about little old me?' that line was written _plainly_ all over that dog's face. The intense need to rip something apart entered my 'mind', and 'Coco' would make a good first victim.

"You have ten astroseconds to run _mutt_," I smiled cruelly to the best of my ability in this new form. "Prepare to suffer!"

She simply stared at me for a minute, and then she was off. I automatically took off after her. A quick lesson in the balance to humans; they don't agree with gravity. When trying to the round the corner at top speed, I learned this the hard way.

Growling once again, I found myself in the same position as only a joor before, only this time I hadn't been pushed down. Oh, how I despise humans… they can't balance, they're made of cells, their technology is primitive, and they always get themselves into situations that don't concern them.

The dog Coco sat down beside me and started to lick my face. I couldn't tell if it was out of pity or an apology. Sitting up, she moved to nuzzle my face and I decided to put up with it as I regained my ability to balance. Besides, an organic giving attention was better than Megatron giving me attention.

"Seth," I heard Stacey approaching, and felt the dog's tail hitting me over and over again. "Breakfast is ready."

Rounding the corner, Stacey came into view. She seemed to gasp at something; I couldn't see what; maybe the fall was visible on my new body. "Are you alright, how did you get that bruise?" How hilarious, she was panicking.

"Ask the mutt."

I think it was another two joors before the panic left and the woman burst out laughing instead. That fried a circuit.

"It's not funny…" I growled hoping to intimidate her into ending her laughter. I believe it had the opposite desired affect. Her laughing only seemed to increase. "Pit! IT IS NOT FUNNY, WOMAN!" I couldn't keep myself from yelling. She was like Blitzwing's crazy personality.

Coco started to bark a bit, but apparently she was trying to laugh with her owner.

After another joor of nothing but laughter, Stacey finally managed to get up and lead me to the table. Coco followed closely nipping at my heels. On the table, two plates were set, both with stiff tan boards that had moist tops, and two discs that were white with visible orange centers. As she sat down in one chair, I took the other, and Coco took to going underneath the table between our 'legs'. Picking up the 'fork' from yesterday, I starred at my fuel, which Stacey called eggs, for a few astrocycles before looking back up at the guardian that faced me. I think that she misinterpreted the message I was trying to send.

"Oh, are they cold?" she asked. "Here, I'll go warm them up." With that she picked up our plates and headed back to the 'kitchen'. Coco did not follow.

My eyes looked at the space where she had left my sight. The way the human processor worked was, in a bolt, strange. She reached a conclusion with know real evidence except a simple look, and then ran off. Megatron believed that seekers were scattered brains and similar in retrospective, actually, seekers just had extremely fast processing units.

The dog's tail kept hitting my legs, and out of irritation, I dropped my fork to look at what the mutt was doing. Unsurprisingly, she looked back with a blissful unawareness that could play on my cords. If I was lucky, running over to the ground, and hitting my legs with a hard tail wouldn't become a habit. My luck however, seemed to despise me, and never helped me out. If it did, I would have killed Megatron a _long_ time ago. Did the universe have a reason for hating me?

By this time, Stacey had returned with the warmed up food and placed the plate back where it had been and started eating. Once more, I found myself copying her movements with the fork although this time it was considerably easier thanks to my practice last night. Unlike the last meal, however, this food was bland and slippery, making it harder to grip with the fork, and I nearly broke the plate. Actually, I probably would have if not for Stacey's timely intervening.

"Trouble?"

I looked up to see a small smile sneaking onto the lip component. I couldn't help but sneer, "Thank you for pointing out the oblivious, now, can you help me with the current problem, or am I going to have half to work it out by myself?"

"Oh, it's a thing that you have to learn for yourself, but I can give you a tip; scoop."

Such a meaningless tip one should usually ignore, yet I tried to pull it off, and it ended working. The egg started to go down faster and the toast you needed to hold with your bear fingers. It was… quiet for a time at the table as I finally started to get the food going into my empty fuel tank, and after five joors, Stacey started speaking about the schedule for the day.

"The first store I want to take you to is Nordstrom to get you measured and maybe a couple formal outfits. They do have a teen section, but I never really looked closely at it, so we should check it out. After that, I want to stop by Old Navy for some jeans, because jeans there are comfortable and inexpensive. A trip to Payless is in need for some sneakers, and we need to get your hair trimmed. And if that's not enough, I need to get you enlisted into the High School. She will probably be here today so that might make things harder…"

"Who is she?"

Instead of just telling me, Stacey shut up and picked up our now empty plates and went back to the kitchen. I took this as the say so to leave and got up to stretch. Once again I forgot about the dog, which leaped up on me again. This time however, I kept myself from falling.

Grimacing a bit, I started to attempt sweet talking the dog off of me. "Now, _Coco_, you don't want to do that… I can ashore you. After all, I don't like this, but I'm sure your owner does. Now go jump on her _please_." One knows that I am desperate if I say please, but now it appeared that the mutt wasn't that intelligent. She gave me a cocked 'head' look and then barked, which _did_ startle me enough to fall, unceremoniously, on my aft. What did humans all it?

Stacey came out of the 'kitchen' and smiled, "Come on Coco, Seth needs to get his shoes on so we can all get going to the shopping center."

I didn't miss the "_all_" in that sentence, and prepared myself for torture.

--

If someone had asked me if I liked the mall before this day I would have laughed and claimed that I had never gone and never would before blasting the other into oblivion. Now, that I was getting the experience, I would have to take back that statement and insert a new one:

**The. Mall. Is. Torture!!!**

We had driven in the vehicle called 'car' again, with the mutt in the back seat slobbering all over the place, and then 'parked' and walked in. Lucky for me, Stacey left part of the window open and left Coco in the car. The crowds were suffocating, and a flaming sweet 'smell' filled my 'nose'. I found myself repeatedly pushed and shoved as people tried to get from place to place. Color, half naked humans, plastic models showing off clothing, rooms with bottles of nasty chemicals, and bright lights was nearly causing me catastrophe. However, being an ex-Decepticon, I excelled in controlling of emotions, and kept it off my features. Finally, we entered a rather big place called, "Nordstrom". I was considerably less crowed than outside, but I could still see quite a few fleshies I was quick to realize that none were in my _human_ 'age group'. It appeared to be a place for older high class citizens, and the occupants kept shooting Stacey these strange dirty looks. I decided to ignore it for the time.

The first place she guided me to was a 'teen' section, filled with strange symbols and even more chemicals. I was quick to show dislike to the 'store' and opted to leave, while hoping that the rest of the 'stores' weren't like this. But the _adult_ _**insisted**_ that I get at least _two_ 'formal outfits'. I refuse to describe the 'dressing room', for it involved nothing besides Stacey staring at my back once again. We ended up getting the outfits, one called a 'tuxedo' and the other a 'collar sweats'. I was happy to leave, but sad to rejoin the bustling crowd. We were quick to arrive at another 'store', this one called, "Old Navy".

It was better than the last one, less crowed and the humans seemed to _except_ our presence. The first place we walled over to was the 'men's jeans' section. Apparently, this place was famous for its 'jeans'. For a moment, I forgot what 'jeans' were, then as Stacey picked them up and compared them to the lower garments I was wearing. 'Jeans' were, as it seemed, to be what I was wearing. She _judged_ me a couple numbers, (I don't bother to remember, what's the point?) before showing me the 'shirts' section. These were the upper garments, and weren't nearly as bad as the ones at the 'Nordstrom' place. According to Stacey, we bought 5 'outfits'.

"JC Penny", seemed to be the next 'store'. It was a real… mix, for lack of better word, of the first two stops. Like "Old Navy", they had acceptable 'shirts', so we ended up with the same amount of the last trip. However, by this time, things were starting to pile up, and Stacey said that we still had _many_ more stops. Something along the lines of, 'shoes'.

So the 'store' that was next was called, "Payless Shoes". It soon became clear that this place was for _specifically_ one area on the human frame, the peds, or as humans put it, the 'foot'. At this place, the 'cashier' and Stacey started to get really friendly while measuring me for size. I ended up with a pair of black 'boots' and a pair of grey 'sneakers'. I had to _drag_ Stacey out of that shop, or she would have probably spoken to the 'cashier' for the rest of the day. Now the load was starting to wear me down, and Stacey seemed to locate a 'service bot' to take care of our things until we returned. At first, I was _thinking_ about thanking her, but then I saw where she was taking me. A rather _big_ place titled, "Bed Bath, and Beyond".

I didn't like the store very much, aside from the fact that the chairs were _extremely_ more comfortable. However, it soon became clear why we had dropped all that stuff off when she came _waltzing_ to me with _another_ service bot carrying a rather large… _thing_. I can't really describe it. It was big, rectangular, and rather thick. Stacey seemed to call it a 'mattress'. She was also rather joyfully dragged me off to this space with different designs for the berth. 'Bed sheets' for my 'bed' when I got 'home'. Fortunately, she said we wouldn't be carrying them around with us, and promptly dropped it off with the rest of our 'luggage'. The next stop, I could understand/appreciate. Something called "Mac", but I could care less for the name, it was the content that made me feel like I was flying again for a brief moment. It was electronics. Consoles, monitors, processors, data drives, programs, and strange little devices that seemed to attract much attention. I felt at home again, despite the primitive technology, it was still technology, and this was a language that I could still processes.

Apparently, she purchased for a 'laptop', and an 'iPhone'. A 'laptop', I could understand; a portable console combined with a data drive. But an 'iPhone' was… confusing. I appeared to be an external comlink by human standards and a data drive at the same time. I was going to ask the reason that she was getting me this… _thing_ when I realized that she had already moved on.

Dropping off the supplies, (for the _third_ time), we came to another rather big 'store' labeled, "Target". I couldn't suppress a snicker at the name. Yes, "target", I'd be more than happy to make a shooting galley of you. Next time, I'll bring my guns. Before I could truly get a good look at the 'store' however, Stacey pulled up a none-engineered vehicle, (Called it a 'shopping cart') and dragged me into the 'dental isle'. She got into _examining_ my teeth and choosing items to go with them. And, of course, don't act all surprised, she sent me straight to the 'men's clothing isle'. We didn't pick up much, just a set of 'pajamas', a 'lamp', and a 'camera'. Why she got me a 'camera', when there was already an image taking function on the 'iPhone', I have no _real_ clue. I guess she was just in frenzy.

After all this, we seemed to _finally_ be returning to the 'house', until I noticed something odd: we weren't carrying any of the supplies that Stacey had purchased. When I asked about this, Stacey claimed that the 'Mall' delivers the "purchased items" to your 'home'. I guess it made a _little_ sense, but I wasn't given much time to dwell on it, for I had completely, (how many times was it now, three?) forgotten about **Coco**. The moment that door opened, she was upon me in an instant, and I nearly fell to the ground. Being knocked over multiple has one advantage: you learn to keep from _falling_ every time.

According to the strange time system; we had started 'shopping' at 9:52, and now, the time was 3:14. I didn't _feel_ like the math, but without a built in chronometer anymore, I was stuck with _primitive_ time systems. Fives hours, and twenty-two seconds; which could be translated to approximately three cycles. Now what did I want? _I wanted_ nothing more than to go 'home' and fall back into the _peaceful_ depths of recharge. Stacey, however, didn't seem to wish to give me that time. I was tired, I was 'hungry', and _we_ still had to go to the 'school'.

When we returned to Stacey's 'house', I could see that someone else was there. Another vehicle was settled in the front, not in the 'driveway', but simply in front… with the front door swinging _wide open_. Now panic was an emotion that I new how to hide, only problem is, panic rose so often with Mega-_fool_ that it had gotten harder for me to hide in my usual way. It went in these steps:  
A) Panic  
B) Pounced by pouch  
C) Slobbered by pouch  
D) Laughed at by Stacey  
E) Enter 'house'  
F) reason for open door revealed

Remember those guys that were supposed to come and fix up the 'room'? Well, they came, and they were doing very well on time. The 'room' had been painted the same color of the 'tablet' in the 'magazine'. They were now waiting for the paint to dry before moving in the 'furniture'. I left Stacey to _converse_ with them while heading into the 'backyard'.

I was white. Everything covered with the powdery snow. The moment I stepped out, it began snowing again. It was not hard, nor windy, just calm flakes of frozen water falling down in different patterns, each completely unique, and gone in astroseconds. Beginning to walk now, I could tell that the snow wouldn't keep me up and I kept feeling myself sink further and deeper into the seeming sturdy structure. Looking up from the new experience, I realized just how _big_ the 'yard' was. Apparently, my _caretaker_ held human 'livestock'; 'chickens', I think they were called, the creature that gave us the 'eggs'.

No sooner had I started walking fair distance to a small 'shed' for closer inspection, then I turned around upon hearing the door open and close and I am attacked _once again_ by the mutt. She seemed _out_ of her arena this time though, and I chose to take advantage of that. We seemed to circle each other, deciding who would make the first move, and when my back faced the door heading back into the 'house', I broke for it. Had I been Starscream, a seeker, I could've simply _transformed_ and flow to the other in an easy fashion. What was different? I now had 'feet', human size, and the _small_ human endurance. Another factor was the _thick_ snow _preventing_ me from running so fast. I had believed that Coco might be under the same trouble, but she had been with her body in these conditions for much longer than I had, and once again, I feel on my face, only this time in the snow.

Honestly, I hate this human life.

--

By the time we finally had headed out for the 'school', it was already nearly the end of the megacycle. 4:15 was the Earth time. I had taken a minute for Stacey to dig me out of the snow, even with the _help_ of Coco. After another moment of freaking out like she had done this morning, her scattered brain had brought me back inside to get warmed up a bit, (the human self-heating systems don't work). It had taken only fifteen minutes for me to get back in the vehicle, 'car', and start driving over to the 'school'.

"Lake Erie High School", she had explained, "is a public school. You're arriving late in the year, and although it's short notice. They're willing to let you join. However, to get an idea of where you are, they're going to test you in some subjects. That's all you'll have to really do, and of course sign some papers. You're last name is going to be Jones, spelled J O N E S, and you're my nephew, I'm your aunt. With me so far?"

I had acknowledged with a nod, so she continued, "I don't know how long you'll be with me, but I think the cover up story should be your mom and dad are on a business trip in Europe, and they sent you here until they get back, which could be never. Your mom's name is Anna, and your father is Steven. You're sixteen, your birthday is December Seventh, and you used to live in Roanoke, Virginia and attended Pine Ridge High. The rest you can fill in by yourself."

It was… a rather _lot_ of information. I repeated much of it in my mind, and it appeared that Stacey had hit everything. Well, I didn't know what kind of information the other fleshlings would enquire from me, so I kept my mouth shut and mused _silently_ on the current predicament.

Lake Erie came into view, which surprised me because I hadn't excepted to be so _close_ to open water. I couldn't swim, because I had never been given a reason to need to. It was a rather interesting point of view though, the snow had stopped, and the sight of _frozen_ water calmed me greatly. The roaring of the cars engines strangely reminded me of the sound of my thrusters kicking off at great speeds and I found myself lost in memories of my great flights. Each one _was_ legendary. After all, I _am_ the great Starscream. And once again, that powerful _need_ for the sky set in.

A 'campus' came into sight, blocking the lake, and I grimaced. Lower intelligent life forms were forcing me to participate in their mocking education programs. They would be testing my knowledge of their _ridiculous_ affairs, their _misinterpreted_ units, their _inferior_ calculations, and their _disturbing_ sciences! Maybe if I scored high enough on their tests, I wouldn't have to go to this _miserable_ 'school'.

While exiting the vehicle, I noticed that this time, Coco was coming with us. And this did not boast well with me.

"Why," I stared as Stacey put the dog on a 'leash' and spoke gravely, "is _she_ coming."

Stacey looked up to me with a rather confused look then back at Coco. And back to me. "I'm afraid that I don't quite understand…"

She didn't understand… well, that made it easier to be blunt. "Coco, as you fondly call her, has the rather _bad_ habit of tackling me. It doesn't matter where or when, how I'm feeling or how she feels, it is inevitable. And, It Is, _EXTREMELY_, _**Embarrassing**_!"

I don't know _what_ about my message was not clear. Stacey just frowned and replied, "What does that have to do with anything?"

Scratch everything, (if anything), good I said about her, she is _very_ thick headed.

When we finally go into the building, I was left to hold the 'leash' while sitting in a chair, waiting for Stacey and the other femme at the 'desk' to stop _chatting_ and to get to the important matters of why we were there. Coco was unusually quiet, sitting patiently by the side of the chair, tail wagging slightly, and watching avidly every twitch of Stacey's. Absent mindedly, I reached out with a hand to start scratching the dog behind the 'ears' like I had seen Stacey do before. I don't know how much time had passed when the femme finally called me into another room to take a couple of tests. Felt like _cycles_, more likely it was just me.

The tests aren't worth talking about. They were simple extremely primitive questions out on slips of flexible condensed 'wood' called 'paper'. Luckily, I _had_ downloaded 'English', and some other systems that were coming in _handy_ at the time. Here's the basics: I took three different 'Math' tests, three 'Science' tests, and a small 'English' one. The only test that I did _poorly_ on at all was the 'Biology' test. Understandable, considering that most of the questions were about the human anatomy, which I knew _close_ to nothing about. After taking the tests, I was left in the room for another eternity, and when I let out. Stacey had the calm "everything's-fine" smile on her face. Behind her, **there was a girl**.

Now I _didn't_ like the look of this girl the moment I rested my 'eyes' on her. She was dressed in all this _tight_ clothing and had a bunch of _metal_ coming out of her 'ears'. Her 'eyes' were brown, had a deep, fierce, _fire_ in them that didn't look healthy and I was _eerily_ reminded of Megatron, only with _much less_ self control. 'Hair' looked to be originally brown, but there were many streaks of different colors woven through, but _mostly_ red and black. It didn't match _at all _with the look of her clothes.

"Hello there." She stepped forward with a small smirk and raised a 'hand' to shake. "You're Miss. Jones' nephew Seth, correct?"

I was messing with unstable energon. _Obviously_ this girl had some sort of _special_ authority over the other two women, Stacey didn't _look_ as nervous as her friend though. I replied with the closet thing I had to a _pleasant_ smile and accepted the 'hand'.

"That is correct," I purred watching her frame _shiver_ with delight. She was taking it all as a game, when really, I was _disgusted_. "And to whom would I be speaking to?" Such a **dangerous** game…

"Catherine," she answered in a _glitch snotty_ tone that made want to _strangle_ the life out of her. Her kind were _not_ uncommon, and I had _destroyed_ many of them before. "Catherine Bamala, but feel free to call me Cathy." She was already flirting. "My father is the Head of the School District, your Aunt's superior." Ah… that made sense. Her sense of "power" came from her '_family'_. Many of the mechs on Cybertron had _once_ been this way. Until the Decepticons…

Until the War.

"Well, Cathy," I made sure to use her name like she had requested, "it was nice meeting you, but I _believe_ that my 'Aunt' Stacey and I _need_ to start heading home." The ground was too dangerous at the moment, it would be best to go and collect information then return to confront the enemy, (I _did_ consider her my new enemy). That sense that Megatron viewed as coward ness was one of my _strongest_ points.

That, and my patience.

"It was nice meeting you too, Seth," she called out while I took to the door with Stacey close behind tugging Coco on the 'leash' giving "good-byes" of her own. "See you tomorrow in class."

I smiled again.

This was _**war**_.

--

**Author's Notes: **_A lot has happened since I started writing this story. This chapter has given me a hard painful labor, but in the end, I think it turned out okay. So, here's why the update took so long. I wrote the first page, the story was deleted. I wrote it again, the story disappeared. I got depressed and stopped writing for a week. The chapter reappears on my mom's computer! I write all the way to page eight… the chapter is replaced by a story I was downloading for devianart! That truly set me off. I couldn't bring myself to the computer for another whole week. As a matter of fact, I decided that I would skip this chapter if this continued. Then, off of the blue, it reappears once again on my mom's computer. Even though I had checked already ten times! Truly I am meant to write this story, from beginning to end, without skipping, and give my reader's a good experience. Reality, you give a great deal of insight, and I thank you. Marion, you help to see the good that I give my readers, so I give thee an air hug, *hugs the women from a distance*. Truly though, thank you all for everything you give me. If not for you all, this story would probably have died long ago. _

**Tinna Minor: **I did it! I wrote the chapter I really absolutely hated! Now thing should be easier… Smooth Sailing!

**Starscream: **You wish; I'm going to give you hell the whole way, along with your teachers, homework, and parents.

**Tinna Minor: **To the Pit with you Screamer!

**Starscream: **Somehow, I believe getting me there is going to be harder than it seems.

**Tinna Minor: **Anyway, please Read, Review! I love you all!


End file.
